ETS - are you here?

RachelG83

Talk nursing to me.

My alma mater has an accelerated program that gets you a 2nd bachelor's in nursing (if you have a 1st bachelor's in another area) in 15 months.  It's balls to the wall and I'd have to figure out a way to survive not working for that time but I think it's my best bet.  I've been looking at it for years just putting it off.

I have no idea what area I'd want to go into yet.  I don't even really know what all of the specialties are.

Mrs.Rotty

Not ETS, but HI HUN!

I was recently talking to B about this a little bit ago with another friend who is thinking about nursing. 

He loves it because of the medical aspects. he likes the medicines and helping people saving lives. etc. 

He gets this glow when he talks about some of his patients. 

but there's always a bad with the good. Most recently he's had a lot of trouble with the older patients. they are combative, argumentative, etc. 

I'm sure you know this, but I volunteered to deploy so he didn't have to work his last term of school. 

It was a lot of work and a lot of stress, but it payed off in the end. 

the only problem we ran into was finding work. In Oregon they were NOT hiring new grads. there were thousands of openings, but no one wanted to hire someone with out experience. so thats something you need to take into consideration. 

If you have any direct questions, i'd be happy to ask him for you. 

RachelG83

Mrs.Rotty:

Not ETS, but HI HUN!

I was recently talking to B about this a little bit ago with another friend who is thinking about nursing. 

He loves it because of the medical aspects. he likes the medicines and helping people saving lives. etc. 

He gets this glow when he talks about some of his patients. 

but there's always a bad with the good. Most recently he's had a lot of trouble with the older patients. they are combative, argumentative, etc. 

I'm sure you know this, but I volunteered to deploy so he didn't have to work his last term of school. 

It was a lot of work and a lot of stress, but it payed off in the end. 

the only problem we ran into was finding work. In Oregon they were NOT hiring new grads. there were thousands of openings, but no one wanted to hire someone with out experience. so thats something you need to take into consideration. 

If you have any direct questions, i'd be happy to ask him for you. 

Hi!

That is so ridiculous!

Thanks for the thoughts  

 

Mrs.Rotty

Thats why we decided for him to commision and go Active Duty. We were living off my 9.50 an hour pay check for over a year while he looked for work. When his unemployment ran out we had to make a decision.

He looked for work, we were willing to relocate. we looked from the canadian border to central california. he applied for EVERYTHING (except psych wards) and got nothing. 

Excitedtostart

Yo!

Nursing school sucks more than anything else I've done. Accelerated program, I will assume that will suck more. Having said that, time is going to pass whether you do this or not. You've been thinking about it for a long time, if you keep thinking about it and never do it, you're going to wake up really pisssed off someday.

Easy for me to tell you to do it, right?

You can do a lot with nursing. I love the ER, but there are amazing other places to work. It's real life though, some days suck, but then other days are better. I've worked in 5 different states and always found the pay to be good. Sometimes the pay is great, other times it's just good. But good is better than bad.

As for the new grad issue, I would look at the school you're going to apply to. What will/can they do to help you. Some offer externships, others just have a good rapport with the hospitals they work in. Getting into a new grad program is key, and that year + your first year as a new nurse can be just as tough as school.

Volunteering in the hospital while you're in nursing school, or starting now will help you. It may not be an option with all the work that school will entail, but it does get your foot in the door.

Another route is that after a certain period of time in nursing school, you're eligible for a CNA license (varies by state). CNA's are the aides that help the nurses. They do vitals, bathing, bedpans, etc. It's not glamorous, but it again gets you in the door and working. When you finish school you'll have a better chance of getting into a new grad program.

I have a few friends who have graduated nursing school over the past few years, and while competition is tough, no one I know hasn't gotten a job. Once you get 1 year experience, the work world is your oyster as far as opportunities go. It's just getting into school, graduating, and getting your first job (of which a new grad internship is perfect)

What other questions do you have? 

RachelG83

I can't think of any right now but I'm sure I'll have more.  I have a few prerequisites that I have to take before I'd try to enroll (A&P I and II and maybe a psych class).  I can take those at the local community college while I'm working because they offer it online or in the evenings with labs in the evenings too.

I'll let you know when I think of more

ludicrous

I'm not ETS either but I did an accelerated program like what you described. I hard core sucked ass but I survived as did a few single moms and another mom with a baby who was 6 mo when she started. If they can do it so can you. Just know that when it feels hard/impossible/like you are drowning it's not your fault and you arent doing something wrong, that's just how it is. I had no trouble finding a job, I was hired from my last semester clinical preceptorship. Like everyone else, if you have any questions feel free to ask.